The Braves are off to a horrible start.  No pitching, no batting, no fielding - 7 games out and we've barely started.  Tejada is injured again.

The bats finally awakened and powered the Braves into first place.  Everybody is hitting and the pitchers are doing enough to win.  Fans are coming out in better numbers, and life is good in Atlanta.

Jason Isringhausen took his wakeup call in AAA and has pitched lights out since being recalled.  Troy Glaus is living up to his potential and is a home run monster.  Matos is getting on and setting the table for the big boys.  Not many problems to talk about.

The bats finally awakened and powered the Braves into first place.  Everybody is hitting and the pitchers are doing enough to win.  Fans are coming out in better numbers, and life is good in Atlanta.

Jason Isringhausen took his wakeup call in AAA and has pitched lights out since being recalled.  Troy Glaus is living up to his potential and is a home run monster.  Matos is getting on and setting the table for the big boys.  Not many problems to talk about.

The Braves picked up a game on the division leading Cubs without getting a lot of production from their go-to players.  This is encouraging because it could bode good things when the top players start to produce.

Starting pitching and long relief are major problems.  ERA's over 6 just won't get it done.  Jimmy Serrano is a bright spot, having turned it around and pitching great in his last 3 outings - ERA 2.19 over that stretch.  Jason Isringhausen, who failed at the beginning of the season seems to have straightened himself out in AAA and is getting another shot.  Noah Lowery has been called to the majors sooner than desired and should be a force.

Net - I think we have a chance to win the division this year.

The Braves were wept by the Dodgers and Pirates and only salvaged one game in the Cubs series.  We fell from one game in first to three games behind the division leading Cubs.  Looking around the league it appears that when we begin playing out of our division things are only going to get tougher.

The formidable batting order failed to produce runs.  The primary problem was the inability to get people on base.  Matos, the leadoff man, had an awful sim, but seemed to be turning it around toward the last few games. Griffey is the bright spot in the order and is producing well.  There aren't any prospects waiting to ride in to the rescue, so patience and hope are the only tools for the batting woes.

Pitching wasn't too bad, and is actually better than I thought it would be.  We aren't getting many quality starts, and I decided to make some moves.  Josh Beckett had a great development streak and is now ready for the majors.  He's moved to the top of the order.  If he works hard and continues to improve he should stay there for many years.

Amazingly, through this terrible period fan approval actually went up by two points.  We need to keep that going.

7-5 out of the box.  Much better than expected with a patchwork pitching staff.  What's going on with Jason Isringhausen?  In the course of two seasons he's gone from ace to MR, and with this sim was demoted to AAA.  Vernon Wells came back from a long injury outage with a great first sim.  That wasn't expected, but perhaps he won't suffer the long term affects some injuries bring.  Mark Adams has been a horse at closer.  Braves batters are playing a lot of long ball, this was as expected.  While we have some good hitters, nobody is among the league leaders.  I expect that will change as the season progresses.

This blog will track the progress of the NARBL Atlanta Braves and comment on league happenings.